Eiji looked at the computer screen and couldn't believe his eyes. He let out a little wail of misery, picked up the phone, and called the one person who could understand, "Nya Oishi! Come quick! Hurry! It's an emergency!" He hung up before his doubles partner could answer and called Fuji still in a panic. "Fujiko! The worst thing ever has happened! Come over! Now! It's an emergency!"

"Ne, Eiji," Fuji sounded a little breathless, "Tezuka and I are a little...tied up at the moment..."

"Nya, Fujiko! I mean it! It's an emergency!" Eiji sounded a little shrill even to himself but he felt sick when he saw what was going on. In almost a whisper he added, "Please, Fujiko, please? I...I...the worst thing ever has happened!"

Fuji soon agreed but warned Tezuka would probably be coming along. Eiji shrugged and through tears smiled. His friends would be here soon. It was a start.

He decided to call some other friends over and before he knew it, Eiji had called everyone he could think of or knew or ever met. It was a good thing his family had gone out shopping that day because his house was going to soon be very crowded.

Very soon people began arriving. Friends and rivals, brothers and cousins. In singles and pairs and teams they came. There were twenty or thirty guys downstairs from all over and more on the way. Gakuto looked furious to see Eiji. Not that Eiji was thrilled, but he had called Gakuto's doubles partner Oshitari and guessed Gakuto came along for the ride. So did Atobe who looked afraid to sit on the sofa for some reason. Like it would stick to him even though that guy who was always sleeping kept telling their Captain to sit down. Finally Kabaji the mountain sat and with a shrug, Jiroh lay on the hulk's arm and started snoring almost immediately.

The Fudomine guys were there. Standing in a corner on their own and not really mingling with anyone. Only the one guy was mumbling incessantly, "...we raced all the way over and I'm just wondering why. It's such a nice day. We should all be outside somewhere playing. That reminds me, I need more grip tape. Think Echizen will bring his with him? He still owes me..."

Eiji heard Kaidoh give a sigh and saw Inui furiously scribbling in a notebook. Across the room, Mizuki was doing the same while mumbling things to Fujiko's brother. Yuuta barely said hello to Fujiko and though Eiji wanted to intervene over there, this was too big to get distracted. This was huge. This affected every one of them.

The doorbell rang again and again and then started ringing less and less. Finally there was one more ring, signaling the last few stragglers arriving. Everyone all struggled to squeeze into the room. Eiji heard snippets of conversation from all over, "You should be resting, Yukimura. At least sit down...oh..."

"I'm fine. I'll just sit on your lap since they seem to be short of seats. Thank you."

"What is this about?"

"What are we waiting for, dane?"

"Che! This is a waste of time. I'm leaving!"

"Shishido-senpai, please wait just a few more moments!"

"Have you heard anything?"

"Just rumors, nothing definitive but what I heard is..."

"I'd better not have been brought here for nothing!"

"I'm sure it's something important, desu!"

"I'm starving! When do we eat?"

"I'm sure Kikumaru-senpai has a good reason for calling everyone here."

"In my two years of tennis experience I've never seen anything like this!"

It was Echizen of course who brought the roar of everyone talking to an abrupt silence. The freshman was sitting quietly on the floor with his baseball hat pulled low over his eyes. He appeared to have been sleeping but sounded wide awake, "Kikumaru-senpai just wants to tell everyone the bad news about Learning to Fall. Right?"

For a moment the room went deadly silent as everyone turned to look down at Echizen and then up at Eiji.

Then before everyone could ask questions all at once Fuji asked in that quiet way of his, "Ne, Echizen. What bad news?"

Kikumaru was upset enough without having Ochibi ruin his thunder. But Oishi, sweet wonderful Oishi who arrived at Eiji's house first and was there to hear what was going on before everyone else saved the day. Oishi was still so upset he looked like he was going to cry. Eiji had a sinking feeling in the center of his chest, but he felt strengthened by Oishi being a little weak at the moment. When Oishi wasn't strong, Eiji was. Eiji was so proud of Oishi saying, "Eiji, tell them. Tell everyone what's happened to Learning to Fall and Learning to Land."

Learning to Fall & Learning to Land based Valentine's Day Yaoi love short stories. Pairings TezuFuji, Dirty Pair, and ShishiTori Warnings: Yaoi, Love, Angst, Fluff, and Sex. You've been warned MM, Yaoi, and more up on my livejournal and aff.n